![[sticky entry]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/entry/sticky_entry.png){kind=small}
Largely for my use only, but if you're interested in following along with my attempt to read one book out of each Library of Congress Classification subclass (and the Dewey Decimal classes I encounter on the way) this sticky is keeping track of them.
( LC Classification )
( Dewey Decimal )
so, I'm into planners now
Apr. 3rd, 2018 04:13 pmMy old Cambridge 3-ring deal finally bit it after 20 years so I decided to get into discbound planner systems (with influence from friend on Instagram who got into it,) particularly the classic Happy Planner, so now I've been buying stickers and using the discbound system to keep better track of my stuff. Some of it is relevant, like my job hunt, but a lot of it is keeping track of my reading.
So I'll probably be book-blogging again!
(also if there are any planner forums or comms or Discords people can recommend, I'd like links)
So I'll probably be book-blogging again!
(also if there are any planner forums or comms or Discords people can recommend, I'd like links)
OK, who flooded the neko?
Jan. 17th, 2018 11:38 pmthe apartment is all floody
so many books ruined
my clothes are all wet because it was in the laundry room
all I want to do is cry and watch hockey, but the Wild are in the bye so I'm stuck watching the Ducks
and I have a job interview sometime soon
why this week, why why why
so many books ruined
my clothes are all wet because it was in the laundry room
all I want to do is cry and watch hockey, but the Wild are in the bye so I'm stuck watching the Ducks
and I have a job interview sometime soon
why this week, why why why
genre/content mismatch problems
May. 25th, 2017 01:47 pmI recently stopped reading a romance novel because it was a) told in the first person; b) entirely from the male hero's point of view; c) the hero was not a particularly sympathetic character.
The thing is--if this had not been billed as a romance, but instead was general fiction, I would have kept reading. General fiction usually would have promised some character development that didn't have anything to do with the love story at the center. The protagonist could have been as much of a jerk as possible, as long as he was interesting. But in romance, the reader is expected to buy into the couple. I didn't want to buy into the couple. But the plot with the couple getting together was the only plot on offer.
(Also, not particularly interested in 22-year-olds who act like 16-year-olds did 25 years ago, but that's a "get off my lawn" problem. New Adult is not for me, and I didn't realize this was New Adult when I requested it. I really don't like romance in first person POV, either.)
The thing is--if this had not been billed as a romance, but instead was general fiction, I would have kept reading. General fiction usually would have promised some character development that didn't have anything to do with the love story at the center. The protagonist could have been as much of a jerk as possible, as long as he was interesting. But in romance, the reader is expected to buy into the couple. I didn't want to buy into the couple. But the plot with the couple getting together was the only plot on offer.
(Also, not particularly interested in 22-year-olds who act like 16-year-olds did 25 years ago, but that's a "get off my lawn" problem. New Adult is not for me, and I didn't realize this was New Adult when I requested it. I really don't like romance in first person POV, either.)
Hockey season (for me, anyway) is over, but I haven't returned to watching baseball because I am too busy. I have been listening to games, however, and am very pleased by all the home runs Eric Thames is hitting. Brewers fans need this excitement in their lives. I certainly do. It's really a shame about the bullpen.
(The Milwaukee Brewers: Dingers! Dingers! Yeah, about that bullpen...)
Was excited about finally maybe getting to see A.J. Griffin pitch on the TV, then he goes and gets himself on the 10-day DL for gout. As I said elsewhere, the fannish price for having Mikko Koivu for an entire season without being on IR once is having all of my pitchers injured, sick, or awful (or two or more of the above,) I guess....
(The Milwaukee Brewers: Dingers! Dingers! Yeah, about that bullpen...)
Was excited about finally maybe getting to see A.J. Griffin pitch on the TV, then he goes and gets himself on the 10-day DL for gout. As I said elsewhere, the fannish price for having Mikko Koivu for an entire season without being on IR once is having all of my pitchers injured, sick, or awful (or two or more of the above,) I guess....
ow, I burned my hand on this take
Apr. 16th, 2017 08:52 pmI try to refrain from generating hot takes. My temper is hot, and I have a take, so this is what you get. Also I was at my mom's today for the Wild game + dinner and I have consumed so much cheap wine that my hangover tomorrow is going to be AWESOME and now I'm sitting on my couch watching Adam Wainwright suck, which is even more depressing than what the Wild did because I have about a decade invested in watching Adam Wainwright not suck. Even though he's not on my team, a good Waino makes the league better. Anyway....
So Wild fans are beating the old drum again about Mikko Koivu being an ineffective captain and that he should lose the captaincy next season. Well, their problem with Koivu will probably be solved by free agency and/or retirement after the 2018 season, so I guess they're just super impatient.
The problem with Koivu's captaincy is that he's been set up to fail by management. He was named captain in 2009, the first permanent one in team history (original coach Jacques Lemaire thought rotating them would help a young, inexperienced team develop leaders) and even after Lemaire left and was replaced by Todd Richards, Koivu's alternate captains were in a rotation. This didn't stop until Mike Yeo took over and set Matt Cullen and Dany Heatley up as alternates. So, this was fine for the 2011-12 season, but then the Wild decided to back the money trucks up to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter for the 2012-13 season and then named them alternate captains. Surprise! Parise had been captain of the Devils. Then they traded for Buffalo Sabres captain Jason Pominville during the 2013 season. So, you know what happens. The Wild, who hadn't even sniffed the playoffs during the three previous years of Koivu's captaincy, make the playoffs, suck, and then all the whiny fanbrats (and the equally whiny media) come calling for Koivu's head. It's time to make Parise the captain, they say, and are still saying (or they do when Parise isn't ill or injured, then it's "he's worthless and not worth his contract.") Well, here they stick him with every other team's leadership and egos. What do you expect? Koivu has said himself that the clubhouse leadership is more of a council of veterans (and now they stuck him with Eric Staal, another team's used captain.) So, what is Koivu's job anyway? Argue with the refs and make sure Granlund doesn't melt down? Yeah, probably. I don't see what stripping him of the C would do, other than piss off the guy who signed the big contract extension before the 2011 season, who then was promptly outstaged, outpaid, and made outmoded. Thanks, management! And with all this, he still says he wants to stay here! Why?!?!
(...I hate the fanbases of Minnesota sports, and the people who run things in Minnesota sports, and despite being a Minnesotan I really would rather watch the non-football Wisconsin teams, because even Bud Selig did not get to me this much--because there are a whole lot of awesome Brewers fans out there.)
So Wild fans are beating the old drum again about Mikko Koivu being an ineffective captain and that he should lose the captaincy next season. Well, their problem with Koivu will probably be solved by free agency and/or retirement after the 2018 season, so I guess they're just super impatient.
The problem with Koivu's captaincy is that he's been set up to fail by management. He was named captain in 2009, the first permanent one in team history (original coach Jacques Lemaire thought rotating them would help a young, inexperienced team develop leaders) and even after Lemaire left and was replaced by Todd Richards, Koivu's alternate captains were in a rotation. This didn't stop until Mike Yeo took over and set Matt Cullen and Dany Heatley up as alternates. So, this was fine for the 2011-12 season, but then the Wild decided to back the money trucks up to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter for the 2012-13 season and then named them alternate captains. Surprise! Parise had been captain of the Devils. Then they traded for Buffalo Sabres captain Jason Pominville during the 2013 season. So, you know what happens. The Wild, who hadn't even sniffed the playoffs during the three previous years of Koivu's captaincy, make the playoffs, suck, and then all the whiny fanbrats (and the equally whiny media) come calling for Koivu's head. It's time to make Parise the captain, they say, and are still saying (or they do when Parise isn't ill or injured, then it's "he's worthless and not worth his contract.") Well, here they stick him with every other team's leadership and egos. What do you expect? Koivu has said himself that the clubhouse leadership is more of a council of veterans (and now they stuck him with Eric Staal, another team's used captain.) So, what is Koivu's job anyway? Argue with the refs and make sure Granlund doesn't melt down? Yeah, probably. I don't see what stripping him of the C would do, other than piss off the guy who signed the big contract extension before the 2011 season, who then was promptly outstaged, outpaid, and made outmoded. Thanks, management! And with all this, he still says he wants to stay here! Why?!?!
(...I hate the fanbases of Minnesota sports, and the people who run things in Minnesota sports, and despite being a Minnesotan I really would rather watch the non-football Wisconsin teams, because even Bud Selig did not get to me this much--because there are a whole lot of awesome Brewers fans out there.)
Reading for 4/15/17
Apr. 15th, 2017 10:47 amRecent books read of note:
Nine Island, Jane Alison: lovely literary fiction about metamorphosis and desire and aging
Cells at Work, volume 1, Akane Shimizu: the adventures of anthropomorphized human cells involved in the immune response.
I think we're meant to ship Red Blood Cell and White Blood Cell, and they would make a cute couple!
Currently reading:
Revenger, Alastair Reynolds: yet another in his various "this would make a good anime" books, which read completely different from his other series. It must be just what he does when he writes a standalone, then.
Nine Island, Jane Alison: lovely literary fiction about metamorphosis and desire and aging
Cells at Work, volume 1, Akane Shimizu: the adventures of anthropomorphized human cells involved in the immune response.
I think we're meant to ship Red Blood Cell and White Blood Cell, and they would make a cute couple!
Currently reading:
Revenger, Alastair Reynolds: yet another in his various "this would make a good anime" books, which read completely different from his other series. It must be just what he does when he writes a standalone, then.
sports and books
Apr. 5th, 2017 11:15 amI apologize, but...hockey ate me? And school, mostly school. But Opening Day has now passed, I'm getting distracted by pitchers again as is normal (omg Kendall Graveman, so good,) and school is almost over. But the Wild made the playoffs, so I guess I'm still watching the hockey, but it has not been very fun to see my favorite player's game disintegrate over the past two months. I mean, I did not expect Mikko Koivu! of all people! to be the target of my old "pretty awful" evaluation: he's pretty, but by gosh has he been playing awful. I would just like to know why.
Stuff I'm reading right now:
The Body Builders: Inside the Science of the Engineered Human, Adam Piore: what it says on the tin, popular science about the state of the cutting edge of biomedical engineering in 2016
A Concise History of Finland, David Kirby: also what it says on the tin, and I wish I had a better book, but apparently this is about a country nobody writes about in English? Eh.
Stuff I just read:
The Story of Kullervo, J.R.R. Tolkien: So apparently Tolkien was one of those young folks who got really into their fandoms? And his fandom was apparently Northern European folklore. And, yeah, I don't recommend trying to teach yourself Finnish, that was a super bad idea I had when I was 15 (blame it on Tolkien, tbh) and he had the same really bad idea when he was in university.
Anyway, Tolkien had some weird ideas about Finland and the Kalevala, and here you go, they're all here.
ETA: To catch up on my last books post, I did finish the Ise Monogatari, and that was a thing, I tell you what. I'm glad I read it, but I don't expect returning to it.
Stuff I'm reading right now:
The Body Builders: Inside the Science of the Engineered Human, Adam Piore: what it says on the tin, popular science about the state of the cutting edge of biomedical engineering in 2016
A Concise History of Finland, David Kirby: also what it says on the tin, and I wish I had a better book, but apparently this is about a country nobody writes about in English? Eh.
Stuff I just read:
The Story of Kullervo, J.R.R. Tolkien: So apparently Tolkien was one of those young folks who got really into their fandoms? And his fandom was apparently Northern European folklore. And, yeah, I don't recommend trying to teach yourself Finnish, that was a super bad idea I had when I was 15 (blame it on Tolkien, tbh) and he had the same really bad idea when he was in university.
Anyway, Tolkien had some weird ideas about Finland and the Kalevala, and here you go, they're all here.
ETA: To catch up on my last books post, I did finish the Ise Monogatari, and that was a thing, I tell you what. I'm glad I read it, but I don't expect returning to it.
the one where she gets into hockey
Feb. 1st, 2017 10:29 amI'm primarily a baseball fan, but this offseason had a whole bunch of Nothing to See--I'm a Brewers fan and all the parts have been sold off, and pitchers and catchers don't report for another 14 days--so I decided to watch hockey during the winter. This is also because the Timberwolves have been horrible and I don't feel like yelling through the TV at a bunch of prospects trying their best. Maybe next season. This year, they keep going out in the 3rd quarter again, which is pretty BAU for the Wolves.
So I've been watching the Wild, which is something I did on and off for the last x seasons, usually if the Wolves were not playing and I needed something on in the background while I read. I'm used to meh sports, living in Minnesota, the Official Home of Meh Sports, so not making the playoffs/playoff failure doesn't faze me much. After all, I'm also a Brewers fan. This season the Wild are not so meh although they were not doing particularly well during the first month of the season, which is when I started watching them.
Anyway, as despite not identifying as being "in fandom" I suppose I am pretty fandom-adjacent so I started looking around the usual spots for "my sort of people"--anonymemes, AO3, Tumblr, etc.
The Wild don't seem to have a fanbase of this sort! Sometimes that is good. Sometimes that is bad. Sometimes one realizes that one has nothing left in common with fandom, which is exactly the place I'm in. The Wild's best player (I guess) is Devan Dubnyk, the goalie, who is (as my mom said) "really goofy-looking." True, but he's very very very good at run, oops, goal prevention. The captain, Mikko Koivu, looks like Mark Melancon, but with Craig Counsell's personality and apparently playing type--mostly all defense, all the time, despite being a center. He gets about zero credit outside Minnesota for actually being a good player, because hockey media sucks.
If players don't play in Toronto or Montreal (for Canadian media) or Chicago or Pittsburgh (US media) nobody cares. In any case, I see the sort of people who write fic don't care about this team, either. I don't care but it makes it hard to find people who care, and the hockey anonymeme is a tire fire. I take it that meme used to be even more of a tire fire, which is hard to imagine. I think I'll just have to let them do them, especially after I took a look at the fic output...eeeeeeh ok.
So I've been watching the Wild, which is something I did on and off for the last x seasons, usually if the Wolves were not playing and I needed something on in the background while I read. I'm used to meh sports, living in Minnesota, the Official Home of Meh Sports, so not making the playoffs/playoff failure doesn't faze me much. After all, I'm also a Brewers fan. This season the Wild are not so meh although they were not doing particularly well during the first month of the season, which is when I started watching them.
Anyway, as despite not identifying as being "in fandom" I suppose I am pretty fandom-adjacent so I started looking around the usual spots for "my sort of people"--anonymemes, AO3, Tumblr, etc.
The Wild don't seem to have a fanbase of this sort! Sometimes that is good. Sometimes that is bad. Sometimes one realizes that one has nothing left in common with fandom, which is exactly the place I'm in. The Wild's best player (I guess) is Devan Dubnyk, the goalie, who is (as my mom said) "really goofy-looking." True, but he's very very very good at run, oops, goal prevention. The captain, Mikko Koivu, looks like Mark Melancon, but with Craig Counsell's personality and apparently playing type--mostly all defense, all the time, despite being a center. He gets about zero credit outside Minnesota for actually being a good player, because hockey media sucks.
If players don't play in Toronto or Montreal (for Canadian media) or Chicago or Pittsburgh (US media) nobody cares. In any case, I see the sort of people who write fic don't care about this team, either. I don't care but it makes it hard to find people who care, and the hockey anonymeme is a tire fire. I take it that meme used to be even more of a tire fire, which is hard to imagine. I think I'll just have to let them do them, especially after I took a look at the fic output...eeeeeeh ok.
this week in reading: 2017-02-01
Feb. 1st, 2017 09:49 amJust finished: To Helvetica and Back, Paige Shelton
Cozy mystery, first in a series. It's written to what I am seeing as the new cozy formula: female sleuth, love interest, quirky shop. There has to be something special about the characterization to get me to actively move on to the second book, and there wasn't.
Currently reading: Racing the Dark, Alaya Dawn Johnson
I know the series will never be finished, but I'd rather have good and unfinished than bad and complete; and since Johnson is writing dystopian YA these days I won't pick up any of her new books until I am assured they are neither dystopian nor YA.
Next up: The Tales of Ise, translated by Peter Macmillan (2016)
My latest attempt in poking through Heian literature, hopefully will be more successful with this than my decade-long reading of The Tale of Genji. Which I am still at, really.
Cozy mystery, first in a series. It's written to what I am seeing as the new cozy formula: female sleuth, love interest, quirky shop. There has to be something special about the characterization to get me to actively move on to the second book, and there wasn't.
Currently reading: Racing the Dark, Alaya Dawn Johnson
I know the series will never be finished, but I'd rather have good and unfinished than bad and complete; and since Johnson is writing dystopian YA these days I won't pick up any of her new books until I am assured they are neither dystopian nor YA.
Next up: The Tales of Ise, translated by Peter Macmillan (2016)
My latest attempt in poking through Heian literature, hopefully will be more successful with this than my decade-long reading of The Tale of Genji. Which I am still at, really.
from the big box of writing excuses
Apr. 11th, 2016 09:16 pmThis one is an answer for those few of you who have asked why I don't write for Brew Crew Ball anymore or why I've stopped reviewing baseball books at my other personal blog, or even why I stopped posting entries for the 2015 TBR Challenge when my Goodreads account activity clearly said that I was climbing Mount TBR pretty steadily last year.
So in short, my personal health has not been that hot, my family's health has not been too hot, my grandmother was terminally ill, which is something we found out in February 2015 and she died at the beginning of July 2015, and while all this was going on there was a massive restructuring at my job throughout 2014 and about half of 2015, which then got reversed, and then my job changed again from the last half of 2015 until...well, it's still ongoing. Oh, and I started school again, this time to get an interior design degree. (I also now work from 5:30 until 4, and then go to school from 5:30 until 9:20 two days a week.) Something had to give, and it was the non-family stuff that didn't pay very much or didn't pay at all.
Content may be coming back, here or at various other places, but...don't expect that often. I have two more years of school, so that should give some idea.
So in short, my personal health has not been that hot, my family's health has not been too hot, my grandmother was terminally ill, which is something we found out in February 2015 and she died at the beginning of July 2015, and while all this was going on there was a massive restructuring at my job throughout 2014 and about half of 2015, which then got reversed, and then my job changed again from the last half of 2015 until...well, it's still ongoing. Oh, and I started school again, this time to get an interior design degree. (I also now work from 5:30 until 4, and then go to school from 5:30 until 9:20 two days a week.) Something had to give, and it was the non-family stuff that didn't pay very much or didn't pay at all.
Content may be coming back, here or at various other places, but...don't expect that often. I have two more years of school, so that should give some idea.
This month's book (I did read last month's but didn't get around to reviewing it--blame school) is a Signet Regency from 1987. I bought it as part of a 10/$1 book sale and it took me about 10 years to get around to reading it.
The plot's kind of ridiculous. A 12-year-old girl gets a crush on a distant relative (age 20) and sets all her goals into marrying him; when she's sixteen and making her debut, she gets her chance to put her plans into action. So this is what people refer to when they complain about teenage ingenue heroines in historicals. I didn't start reading the genre in earnest until around 2004 so I missed, what, 98% of the implementations of this trope? It's just not done anymore. If we want teens and romance now there are plenty of YA and New Adult novels to give them to us. This sort of plot really only works in the category-length traditional Regency, though, because of the length and need to "keep it clean." What I liked about this book was that the extensive family ties between characters were important and it was always clear that responsible adults were looking out for the characters' interests. What I didn't like was that we didn't get enough time from the hero's POV (which, again, is a staple of 21st-century romance; not so much with the 1980s categories) and that I didn't get much sense of what the couple saw in each other--but, yes, it's short. I didn't get the sense they didn't suit, so at least there was that.
I rated this three stars on GR because it was a competent novel despite the ridiculous plot. I just couldn't get over the 12-year-old's crush being a basis for a lifetime choice. I look back on my crushes on both people in my RL and celebrities when I was 12 and I cringe. There's nothing like meeting a celebrity crush 20 years after the crush ended and generally ignoring him in favor of the person who knows of you due to knowing people at your job, because he is talking your ear off about work....
The plot's kind of ridiculous. A 12-year-old girl gets a crush on a distant relative (age 20) and sets all her goals into marrying him; when she's sixteen and making her debut, she gets her chance to put her plans into action. So this is what people refer to when they complain about teenage ingenue heroines in historicals. I didn't start reading the genre in earnest until around 2004 so I missed, what, 98% of the implementations of this trope? It's just not done anymore. If we want teens and romance now there are plenty of YA and New Adult novels to give them to us. This sort of plot really only works in the category-length traditional Regency, though, because of the length and need to "keep it clean." What I liked about this book was that the extensive family ties between characters were important and it was always clear that responsible adults were looking out for the characters' interests. What I didn't like was that we didn't get enough time from the hero's POV (which, again, is a staple of 21st-century romance; not so much with the 1980s categories) and that I didn't get much sense of what the couple saw in each other--but, yes, it's short. I didn't get the sense they didn't suit, so at least there was that.
I rated this three stars on GR because it was a competent novel despite the ridiculous plot. I just couldn't get over the 12-year-old's crush being a basis for a lifetime choice. I look back on my crushes on both people in my RL and celebrities when I was 12 and I cringe. There's nothing like meeting a celebrity crush 20 years after the crush ended and generally ignoring him in favor of the person who knows of you due to knowing people at your job, because he is talking your ear off about work....
My TBR Challenge entry for this month's series catchup theme was Nicole Helm's Too Friendly to Date, the second book in her Bluff City series. The author is a Twitter friend based on her tweets about NL Central, particularly Cardinals, matters and I discovered her books via that. So, yes, there is a relationship but it doesn't affect my review because there are plenty of writers I follow due to baseball who have written books I dislike.
I'm trying to catch up with this series only to find out in the time between this book coming out and this month's release of Falling for the New Guy, my usual offline sources of the Harlequin Superromance line have stopped carrying them. It looks like I'm going to end up buying the bundle from Google Play this weekend.
Getting on to the book, I love the setting of the books, both the Iowa setting and that the characters are all part of the coworkers and family in a home remodeling business. It feels like a real town, and a real business, and I like the fact that this allows for heroines in nontraditional professions. This book's heroine is an electrician dealing with cranky customers, her own health problems, and an attraction to her boss. Leah has a problem, though, and that's her family from Minnesota who don't believe that she can take care of herself and who have absolutely no concept of boundaries. Leah, to get her annoying family off her back, has to pretend that her boss Jacob is her boyfriend. It becomes the real thing.
What I like about this line of category romances is that the books are long enough to allow authors to get their emotional plotlines tied up or on the way to a plausible resolution. Not just the pairing's HEA, but the family and work situations that happen. This book is no exception although I'm really not quite sure the boundary-setting would come off as easy as it does; on the other hand IRL this stuff takes years to get through with some families.
And Helm did do the impossible in this one: she got me to understand the appeal of Joe Mauer. Not share it, but at least understand it. This, from Chapter Eleven, cracked me up:
I'm trying to catch up with this series only to find out in the time between this book coming out and this month's release of Falling for the New Guy, my usual offline sources of the Harlequin Superromance line have stopped carrying them. It looks like I'm going to end up buying the bundle from Google Play this weekend.
Getting on to the book, I love the setting of the books, both the Iowa setting and that the characters are all part of the coworkers and family in a home remodeling business. It feels like a real town, and a real business, and I like the fact that this allows for heroines in nontraditional professions. This book's heroine is an electrician dealing with cranky customers, her own health problems, and an attraction to her boss. Leah has a problem, though, and that's her family from Minnesota who don't believe that she can take care of herself and who have absolutely no concept of boundaries. Leah, to get her annoying family off her back, has to pretend that her boss Jacob is her boyfriend. It becomes the real thing.
What I like about this line of category romances is that the books are long enough to allow authors to get their emotional plotlines tied up or on the way to a plausible resolution. Not just the pairing's HEA, but the family and work situations that happen. This book is no exception although I'm really not quite sure the boundary-setting would come off as easy as it does; on the other hand IRL this stuff takes years to get through with some families.
And Helm did do the impossible in this one: she got me to understand the appeal of Joe Mauer. Not share it, but at least understand it. This, from Chapter Eleven, cracked me up:
...Her back was to him, and she was leaning against her stupid Joe Mauer poster, but he didn't miss the sounds of crying. Not sobs or anything. Just a hitch to her breathing, some sniffles.
He honest to God hadn't expected that. "Are you crying?"
She sniffled again, not turning to face him. "No, me and Joe are just having a moment." Her voice was squeaky. Yeah, crying.
"You're crying into your Joe Mauer poster's shoulder."
She sighed. "Joe understands. And he doesn't try to cop a feel. Not that I'd mind from Joe." She patted the crotch region of the poster, causing Jacob to cough out a laugh.
2015 SFF recs
Mar. 7th, 2015 11:25 pmNo, not mine. I need them. As I tweeted earlier I feel I am "growing out" of the genre, as so much of it is YA and/or deeply uninteresting to me. Is there anything that's already out or that is coming out that I've missed and will enjoy?
2015 I'm reading:
Signal to Noise, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Galaxy Game, Karen Lord
2015 I've read:
Castaway Planet, Ryk E. Spoor
The Just City, Jo Walton
2015 will read when out/available/can access:
Dark Intelligence, Neal Asher
Impulse, Dave Bara
Dark Alchemy, Laura Bickle
Voyage of the Basilisk, Marie Brennan
Leviathan, Jack Campbell
Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho
Gemini Cell, Myke Cole
Nemesis Games, James S.A. Corey
Shadow Scale, Rachel Hartman
Of Noble Family, Mary Robinette Kowal
The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu
The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu
War of Shadows, Gail Z. Martin
The Book of Phoenix, Nnedi Okorafor
Dendera, Yuya Sato
Phoenix in Shadow, Ryk E. Spoor
Hell's Foundations Quiver, David Weber
2015 I'm reading:
Signal to Noise, Silvia Moreno-Garcia
The Galaxy Game, Karen Lord
2015 I've read:
Castaway Planet, Ryk E. Spoor
The Just City, Jo Walton
2015 will read when out/available/can access:
Dark Intelligence, Neal Asher
Impulse, Dave Bara
Dark Alchemy, Laura Bickle
Voyage of the Basilisk, Marie Brennan
Leviathan, Jack Campbell
Sorcerer to the Crown, Zen Cho
Gemini Cell, Myke Cole
Nemesis Games, James S.A. Corey
Shadow Scale, Rachel Hartman
Of Noble Family, Mary Robinette Kowal
The Dark Forest, Cixin Liu
The Grace of Kings, Ken Liu
War of Shadows, Gail Z. Martin
The Book of Phoenix, Nnedi Okorafor
Dendera, Yuya Sato
Phoenix in Shadow, Ryk E. Spoor
Hell's Foundations Quiver, David Weber
This month's delayed TBR Challenge entry is on True Courage by Dee Henderson, originally published in 2005 (later reprinted in 2008 with the oh-so-original title of Kidnapped. Which, you know, is a thing that happens in a load of romantic suspense, so this really doesn't distinguish it out of the pack here.) The month's suggested theme was "recommended read" and this would have not been something I would have picked up on my own as I don't go out of my way to read non-baseball-related Christian fiction. But about a decade ago, I was playing in one of those multifandom journal-based roleplaying games--like Milliways, but crappier--and one of my friends and a fellow member of the Tolkien Elf-playing contingent was a massive fan of Dee Henderson. So much so that I received this book as a gift. It took me nearly a decade to read, because I suck at climbing Mount TBR, but I finally got around to it. I'm glad I did as it was a lot better than the other Henderson she made me read.
Not only is Christian fiction/inspirational romance not really my thing, romantic suspense is not really my thing. I've tried but I have issues with a lot of tropes of the romantic suspense genre. A woman in danger is not one of the problems--that's the basis of pretty much the entire genre. I just have issues with insta-love and my least favorite thing, the hero and heroine stopping the action to have sex in the middle of running from something or chasing something or...well, a lot of times it's a really bad time to take an intimate break. This being Christian fiction, we don't have that problem in True Courage. We also don't have that much of a problem with the insta-love either; the hero is the heroine's brother-in-law's cousin and the relationship is treated as getting established. The hero and heroine are the ones chasing down the bad guys here, too; it's her sister, nephew and brother-in-law who get kidnapped. Unfortunately due to the structure of the plot, I felt shortchanged on the romance plot but was very satisfied with the thriller/suspense portion. It's a hard balance to get right in the genre and I feel that sometimes the straight thriller/crime fiction genre does better with romance than some romantic suspense does. Religion didn't overwhelm the book either; the characters are Christian and they pray and ask for God's guidance. It was a normal part of characterization.
Not only is Christian fiction/inspirational romance not really my thing, romantic suspense is not really my thing. I've tried but I have issues with a lot of tropes of the romantic suspense genre. A woman in danger is not one of the problems--that's the basis of pretty much the entire genre. I just have issues with insta-love and my least favorite thing, the hero and heroine stopping the action to have sex in the middle of running from something or chasing something or...well, a lot of times it's a really bad time to take an intimate break. This being Christian fiction, we don't have that problem in True Courage. We also don't have that much of a problem with the insta-love either; the hero is the heroine's brother-in-law's cousin and the relationship is treated as getting established. The hero and heroine are the ones chasing down the bad guys here, too; it's her sister, nephew and brother-in-law who get kidnapped. Unfortunately due to the structure of the plot, I felt shortchanged on the romance plot but was very satisfied with the thriller/suspense portion. It's a hard balance to get right in the genre and I feel that sometimes the straight thriller/crime fiction genre does better with romance than some romantic suspense does. Religion didn't overwhelm the book either; the characters are Christian and they pray and ask for God's guidance. It was a normal part of characterization.
baseball-compliant romance novels
Feb. 2nd, 2015 08:09 pmThis was a Twitter request for "baseball romances that don't get the baseball 'wrong'". I've never played the game and can't seem to get the minor leaguers I follow on Twitter to read romance novels but I have been a fan since 1987 and have read so many things and attended so many games that I think I know when a book feels "wrong."
Rather than saying that things are "wrong" in other books, I'm going to call these "baseball-compliant"--the sport is depicted as accurately as it can be while using the tropes and genre conventions of romance.
Better Than Perfect; Worth the Trade, Kristina Mathews: These are the books where I had the tropes in romance in mind in terms of slightly getting out of the way of compliance, which is more to the point in the second book in this series--the traditional trope being used is "sleeping with the boss" where the boss in this case is a female owner and the employee is a ballplayer. I remember tweeting about the series and saying that I was thankful for a baseball romance where the author could mention the collapse of the bullpen and not assume her readers would take it literally! The first book is a good old secret baby book and despite that not being my favorite trope, I thought it was great. The hero in this book is a star in decline--former Cy Young Award winner, threw a perfect game, but hasn't been on the top of the game for a while despite still being competent at his job. (Lyrical Press, originally e-published, 2014)
Second Chance Family, Leigh Duncan: This one's a particularly odd choice for baseball compliance as it's about a retired minor league player who is now a teacher and coaches youth sports and a woman divorced from a major league player, so there isn't any pro baseball in the story that isn't games attended by the characters. The attitudes of the hero and heroine about the game are what get this to the correct "feel" that they know how this world works. (Harlequin American Romance, February 2014)
Hard and Fast, Lisa Renee Jones: I wish I had remembered more about the accuracy of this one, other than just noting it "yes"--despite the usual trope of reporter heroine, athlete hero. I can't find my copy to cite exactly what player it was, but Jones did thank a former MLB player for acting as a consultant to the story. (Harlequin Blaze, August 2007)
Scoring, Kristin Hardy: Trainer heroine, minor league hitting coordinator hero. The hitting coordinator position makes this pairing make a lot of sense as he doesn't belong to just one team and has a reason to be separated from the heroine when he goes around to other teams in the organization. (Harlequin Blaze, March 2003)
Summer Season, Vella Munn: Trainer heroine, Northwest League manager hero. Author was official scorer for an NWL team. For as much as I know about short-season A, it feels accurate. Things haven't really changed that much in 30 years, the players are still underpaid and have to ride buses all over. The stats just hit the front office sooner. (Harlequin American Romance, February 1984)
Rough Diamond, Brooke Hastings: This is definitely one of the celebrity athlete hero books but the author did her research, even referring to a free agency compensation draft that was only used in the early 1980s. I looked it up. This was indeed a thing. My problems in my short review seem to indicate that my main problem with it was "1980s sexual attitudes" which should serve as a content warning for the non-baseball elements. (Silhouette Special Edition, 1982)
Rather than saying that things are "wrong" in other books, I'm going to call these "baseball-compliant"--the sport is depicted as accurately as it can be while using the tropes and genre conventions of romance.
Better Than Perfect; Worth the Trade, Kristina Mathews: These are the books where I had the tropes in romance in mind in terms of slightly getting out of the way of compliance, which is more to the point in the second book in this series--the traditional trope being used is "sleeping with the boss" where the boss in this case is a female owner and the employee is a ballplayer. I remember tweeting about the series and saying that I was thankful for a baseball romance where the author could mention the collapse of the bullpen and not assume her readers would take it literally! The first book is a good old secret baby book and despite that not being my favorite trope, I thought it was great. The hero in this book is a star in decline--former Cy Young Award winner, threw a perfect game, but hasn't been on the top of the game for a while despite still being competent at his job. (Lyrical Press, originally e-published, 2014)
Second Chance Family, Leigh Duncan: This one's a particularly odd choice for baseball compliance as it's about a retired minor league player who is now a teacher and coaches youth sports and a woman divorced from a major league player, so there isn't any pro baseball in the story that isn't games attended by the characters. The attitudes of the hero and heroine about the game are what get this to the correct "feel" that they know how this world works. (Harlequin American Romance, February 2014)
Hard and Fast, Lisa Renee Jones: I wish I had remembered more about the accuracy of this one, other than just noting it "yes"--despite the usual trope of reporter heroine, athlete hero. I can't find my copy to cite exactly what player it was, but Jones did thank a former MLB player for acting as a consultant to the story. (Harlequin Blaze, August 2007)
Scoring, Kristin Hardy: Trainer heroine, minor league hitting coordinator hero. The hitting coordinator position makes this pairing make a lot of sense as he doesn't belong to just one team and has a reason to be separated from the heroine when he goes around to other teams in the organization. (Harlequin Blaze, March 2003)
Summer Season, Vella Munn: Trainer heroine, Northwest League manager hero. Author was official scorer for an NWL team. For as much as I know about short-season A, it feels accurate. Things haven't really changed that much in 30 years, the players are still underpaid and have to ride buses all over. The stats just hit the front office sooner. (Harlequin American Romance, February 1984)
Rough Diamond, Brooke Hastings: This is definitely one of the celebrity athlete hero books but the author did her research, even referring to a free agency compensation draft that was only used in the early 1980s. I looked it up. This was indeed a thing. My problems in my short review seem to indicate that my main problem with it was "1980s sexual attitudes" which should serve as a content warning for the non-baseball elements. (Silhouette Special Edition, 1982)
I'll be doing these monthly reviews as part of the 2015 TBR Challenge. This month's theme was short fiction and instead of reading one novella I went and read an entire anthology of them.
The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown is one of those things I don't encounter in my personal romance reading, a shared-world anthology. The world in this case is the Regency setting of Julia Quinn's Bridgertons series, and this particular anthology is linked by the setting's famous gossip columnist Lady Whistledown. The problem with other authors sharing this world is that it's not only Quinn's setting that draws reader interest, it's Quinn's skills at humor, characterization and dialogue and only one of these four stories has that. Of course, it's the last one and the only one by Quinn, "Thirty-Six Valentines."
I do appreciate that the authors worked together enough to share characters; the main characters from one story will show up in the background for others. I enjoy seeing that this is a social world and that people in that small bubble would necessarily know each other.
As for the stories that didn't work for me: "One True Love" by Susanne Enoch dropped me with the arranged marriage plot and the over-alphaness of the hero; Karen Hawkins' "Two Hearts" featured yet another overbearing hero who thinks he knows best. Mia Ryan's "A Dozen Kisses" came close to getting the humor right and had a heroine that I could see as a good character in her own right. It also had cats.
The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown is one of those things I don't encounter in my personal romance reading, a shared-world anthology. The world in this case is the Regency setting of Julia Quinn's Bridgertons series, and this particular anthology is linked by the setting's famous gossip columnist Lady Whistledown. The problem with other authors sharing this world is that it's not only Quinn's setting that draws reader interest, it's Quinn's skills at humor, characterization and dialogue and only one of these four stories has that. Of course, it's the last one and the only one by Quinn, "Thirty-Six Valentines."
I do appreciate that the authors worked together enough to share characters; the main characters from one story will show up in the background for others. I enjoy seeing that this is a social world and that people in that small bubble would necessarily know each other.
As for the stories that didn't work for me: "One True Love" by Susanne Enoch dropped me with the arranged marriage plot and the over-alphaness of the hero; Karen Hawkins' "Two Hearts" featured yet another overbearing hero who thinks he knows best. Mia Ryan's "A Dozen Kisses" came close to getting the humor right and had a heroine that I could see as a good character in her own right. It also had cats.
Thermae Romae I, Mari Yamazaki
Dec. 15th, 2012 05:16 pmI promised ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
telophase that I'd write about this manga when I was done with it, and it's pretty much what I had expected. Which is to say I had heard about it on Twitter and it's exactly what they said it was: Roman architect and engineer who's just been fired from his firm for making outdated designs of public baths gets sucked through a drain into a bathhouse in 1970s Japan and comes back to Rome with ideas to improve bathing via things he picked up in Japan. This happens in every chapter, although the time period he travels to moves up in time to 2009: Lucius has a problem with something bath-related in Rome, gets sent to Japan via water in a bath (usually while naked, and yes, Hilarity Ensues) and comes back with Japanese ideas to make Roman baths just as awesome as Japan's.
Each chapter in this English edition, comprising volumes 1 and 2 of the Japanese, is followed by an essay by Yamazaki about her research and experiences. Yamazaki studied in Italy, is married to an Italian, and has lived in Europe for some time so her experiences of the worldwide bathing and hot springs traditions involve more than just Japan's.
I found this interesting. I think it helps to know something about both ancient Rome and about modern Japan's baths just to not be completely boggled but if you know even a little bit, the manga won't be perplexing at all.
telophase that I'd write about this manga when I was done with it, and it's pretty much what I had expected. Which is to say I had heard about it on Twitter and it's exactly what they said it was: Roman architect and engineer who's just been fired from his firm for making outdated designs of public baths gets sucked through a drain into a bathhouse in 1970s Japan and comes back to Rome with ideas to improve bathing via things he picked up in Japan. This happens in every chapter, although the time period he travels to moves up in time to 2009: Lucius has a problem with something bath-related in Rome, gets sent to Japan via water in a bath (usually while naked, and yes, Hilarity Ensues) and comes back with Japanese ideas to make Roman baths just as awesome as Japan's.Each chapter in this English edition, comprising volumes 1 and 2 of the Japanese, is followed by an essay by Yamazaki about her research and experiences. Yamazaki studied in Italy, is married to an Italian, and has lived in Europe for some time so her experiences of the worldwide bathing and hot springs traditions involve more than just Japan's.
I found this interesting. I think it helps to know something about both ancient Rome and about modern Japan's baths just to not be completely boggled but if you know even a little bit, the manga won't be perplexing at all.
things that would help
Dec. 9th, 2012 12:27 amWith all the YA reading and reviewing that goes on in places like Goodreads, why isn't someone making lists of "YA fantasy that would have been published as adult fantasy 25 years ago" and "YA sff with absolutely no love triangles whatsoever." It would be so helpful and go a long way towards me actually liking this marketing category instead of actively avoiding it except for books containing my bulletproof tropes/written by people I knew from one of the Snape mailing lists a decade ago/written by friends of friends.
